Growth for the sake of growth is a dangerous strategy for most small businesses. By making revenue generation the prime mission of the company, it fails to take into account how the rest of the organization will execute the product or service delivery of the increased sales.

Assuming that everything else in the company will expand naturally as revenue grows, is wishful thinking. A small group of people can do amazing things when necessary, but as a company grows the need to add additional staff risks destabilizing a cohesive group as new personalities are added to the mix.

Additionally, the added requirements for cash or lines of credit may not be readily available when you actually need it most.

Lastly, how much of a sacrifice are you prepared to make? To be sure, success demands sacrifices, but the trick is to acknowledge what these sacrifices might be and who they impact, then have a conversation with all those affected to ensure you have their support and understanding.

Taking your business to the next level requires a full 360 degree assessment of your current business resources, identify any shortcomings and then put a plan in place to correct them. But above all else make sure this is what you truly want

At one time or another, many owners are faced with a business that has stalled out, and often it’s a simple matter of a sluggish economy and with a little patience things recover and growth resumes.

For others though, their business has just plateaued and are at a loss as to how to regain their rhythm and push through to next level. When this happens, the first place I look is under the hood of the business. Is it structurally sound with the right people in place to go to the next level? In other words is the company ready, willing and able?

In many situations all the elements are in place. I then turn to the owner and ask “What made you successful?” “What did you do when you first started out to generate business?” Was it networking, participating in associations, cold calling and how much of that do you do now?

What typically happens is that we get so busy servicing customers and making money that we stop doing those things that made us successful in the first place.

So when you find yourself with a stalled business, ask yourself “What made us successful?”

Nothing undermines your professionalism more than using one of the many free email services available today.

Being in business is hard enough. On a daily basis we are faced with numerous challenges that keep us awake at night as we struggle to take our business to the next level and yet we penalize ourselves by not taking care of some of the simple no brainer activities.

Domain named email is nothing more than having a company based email address instead of joesmith@gmail or @yahoo you have joesmith@yourcompany.com

Registering a domain is a simple process handled online and many of these same organizations also offer email for a few dollars a month. If you already have a website, you most likely have domain named email included in your hosting fees and you only need to activate it.

It may not seem important but it is one of the first things your prospective customer sees and having a free email account telegraphs amateur hour and that you’re not serious about your business.

Having a named based domain removes one more obstacle for people to do business with you.